When the great library of Alexandria亚历山大 burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coppers¹.

The book wasn't very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip² of vellum牛皮纸 on which was written the secret of the "Touchstone试金石，标准"!

The touchstone was a small pebble³鹅卵石 that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles⁴ that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his few belongings⁵, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles.

He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold - throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea.

The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, about midafternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.

So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant⁶警醒的, it's easy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it's just as easy to throw it away.